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I'm curious about this 12.12.12 relief concert. Why do they need financial support from private citizens? New York and New Jersey voted for a candidate that promised big government is the solution to their problems. Has the government not provided for all their needs after the hurricane destruction?

The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Paul McCartney, Bon Jovi, The Who, Roger Waters, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, Kanye West and many other artists will perform at the benefit to the Robin Hood Relief Fund and victims of Hurricane Sandy. The broadcast will be accessible by an estimated 2 billion people worldwide, according to the concert's website http://www.121212concert.org. U.S. television viewers will have a difficult time missing the event. The broadcast will be carried on 34 channels, from AMC to VH1 Classic. Even pay channels HBO and Showtime 2 and the newsy Bloomberg will carry the...

President Barack Obama asked Congress Friday for $60.4 billion in federal aid for New York, New Jersey and other states hit by Superstorm Sandy in late October. It’s a disaster whose cost is rivaled only by the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2005 Hurricane that devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Obama’s request adds a huge new to-do item to a congressional agenda already packed with controversy on how to resolve the nation's budget woes and avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. “Our nation has an obligation to assist those who suffered losses and who lack adequate resources...

Mayor Bloomberg made an impromptu visit to the Rockaways this week—although he was predominantly there to discuss Sandy recovery efforts with local paper The Wave (and declare that the age of the wooden boardwalk is so over), Bloomberg also was confronted by some Occupy Sandy members. And for once, he had nothing but praise for them: "Thank you for everything you've done. You guys are great," Bloomberg told them, as you can see in the video below. "We really do appreciate it, all kidding aside. You really are making a difference. Goodbye," he said. (VIDEO AT LINK) Bloomberg probably would...

Hurricane Sandy victims in Staten Island are suffering far more than is being reported. Won’t you please help? We need help feeding our neighbors whose lives have been destroyed. We need your prayers as well. The Red Cross and FEMA are doing very good work, but even they are falling behind. I am a volunteer at a relief center set up by and for ordinary Staten Islanders with no government help. We are retired New York City Police Officers and Firemen. We serve 800 to 1000 meals a day from our own pockets and the generosity of other ordinary people....

Throughout his tenure as Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo has chosen to maintain a suprisingly low profile. Think quick: how much footage have you seen of him in the Hurricane Sandy aftermath compared to his cross-George Washington Bridge buddy, Chris Christie? But has Cuomo finally decided the time has come to make himself more visible? A PSA for Hurricane Relief, aired on Morning Joe today, featured a star-studded cast of Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Whoopi Goldberg, Edie Falco, Michael J. Fox and Julianna Margulies and Nathan Lane. One panel, devoid of reference to the relief organization, starkly read "Join...

Stopping veteran Dem retirements is top priority for Reid, SchumerBy Alexander Bolton - 11/25/12 06:00 AM ET One of the highest immediate political priorities for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Democratic political guru Charles Schumer (N.Y.) is to persuade veteran colleagues not to retire in 2014. Democratic sources identify four senators as most likely to retire: Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). Another possible veteran retirement is Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who has yet to announce his decision. But Democratic aides expect him to run...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) — Some residents of a New York City neighborhood that suffered fire and flooding during Superstorm Sandy say thieves looted their damaged houses over Thanksgiving.</p> <p>The New York Post reports (http://bit.ly/QgcssM ) that thieves struck at least three homes in the Breezy Point section of Queens.</p>

I've been doing some searches, cannot come up with news accounts to support an email that claims that guns were taken from hurricane victims (either Staten Island o elsewhere) at *gunpoint*--rendering them helpless. Has anyone else heard of this, and any links would be appreciated. I'm skeptical, simply because I don't think the left could organized a gun grab so quickly after the storm....

The Material Girl has been showing more than a lot of love for victims of Hurricane Sandy. At her most recent concerts in Cleveland and New York, she stripped for the audience in order to get donations for storm relief (videos follow with transcribed highlights and commentary, mild vulgarity).

President Obama praised the resilient New York attitude and the efforts of rescue workers during his talk after touring areas of Queens and Staten Island that were ravaged by Hurricane Sandy.‘I´m very proud of you, New York. You guys are tough you bounce back,’ he said while visiting New Dorp Beach in Staten Island. After a brief helicopter tour of Queens- passing over particularly devastated areas like Rockaway Beach and Breezy Point- they arrived in Staten Island where they examined the damage by foot.

In an emergency evacuation, there will always be people who stay behind to protect their personal belongings. People who ignored evacuation warnings had to be rescued and some lost their lives in one of the worst storms in the history of natural disasters in the United States.The biggest challenges were hunger and cold because of electrical outages. More than 8.1 million homes and businesses lost power.In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, city leaders across the country are asking how their city would respond to a similar disaster and examining their preparedness and self-reliance needs. Sandy would have resulted in much...

In the aftermath of last month’s Superstorm Sandy, the way New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie handled the disaster by working with President Barack Obama left some conservatives questioning Christie’s motives and political future. One of Christie’s fellow New Jerseyans, HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher, spoke highly of Christie. Maher is an outspoken liberal, donated $1 million to Obama’s reelection bid and may not be an endorsement that Christie would otherwise seek out. On Current TV’s “Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer,” Maher explained his admiration for the current New Jersey governor. “You know, on the one hand you have people...

Kathy Maggio, 56, lives a half block away from the beach on 126th Street, in a one-story brick house in Rockaway, Queens. Hurricane Sandy severely damaged her house: Flood waters gushed in, leaving leaking ceilings, a ruined skylight, water-logged walls and a basement full of destroyed furniture, rugs, and boxes of photos and keepsakes. Maggio said she saw volunteers in her hard-hit neighborhood shortly after the storm hit. "So I saw these guys walking around, removing debris at a neighbor's house," Maggio said. Two days later, she said, half a dozen volunteers were at her door. They were members of...

Fat chance for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s White House aspirations in the wake of his post-Sandy bromance with President Obama. National Republican political consultant John McLaughlin said Christie didn’t do himself any favors with his enthusiastic embrace of Obama after Hurricane Sandy devastated his state — or with his arguably self-serving Republican National Convention keynote speech.... McLaughlin added that just “a couple of days after” Christie lavished praise on Obama, the president “certainly might have deserved some criticism, and still to this day, because the federal response in the area is nonexistent in a lot of ways.” Christie has...

It’s been two weeks since Hurricane Sandy killed 113 people, wiped out portions of towns, and knocked out power to millions. It has also been two weeks since Barack Obama pledged, “No bureaucracy. No red tape.” However, according to multiple public and private sources, unions and union-related red tape are causing workers from out of state to be turned back, as well as workers contracted by FEMA, as well as tons of supplies, already in New York and New Jersey to sit idle—at a cost of millions to taxpayers. It has already been well publicized though the Daily Caller how...

The American Red Cross, which bills itself as “the world's largest humanitarian network,” is pushing back against critics of its response to Hurricane Sandy, with the head of the organization saying its relief effort has been “near flawless” despite criticism from stranded storm victims and elected officials. Two weeks after the superstorm slammed the East Coast, leaving millions of residents without power and in need of food, warmth and shelter, the venerable nonprofit has taken a public battering over what many victims and some officials saw as a lackluster and unfocused response. Thomas Donovan, a 43-year-old software salesman who was...

The post-storm housing — a refugee camp on the grounds of the Monmouth Park racetrack – is in lockdown, with security guards at every door, including the showers. No one is allowed to go anywhere without showing their I.D. Even to use the bathroom, “you have to show your badge,” said Amber Decamp, a 22-year-old whose rental was washed away in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. The mini city has no cigarettes, no books, no magazines, no board games, no TVs, and no newspapers or radios. On Friday night, in front of the mess hall, which was serving fried chicken and...

While all eyes were on Hurricane Sandy in the days leading up to the storm’s breach on the mainland of the Northeast, the White House was busy devising new ways to enslave Americans under the guise of protecting national security. On October 26, 2012, Barack Obama quietly signed an Executive Order (EO) establishing the so-called Homeland Security Partnership Council, a public-private partnership that basically merges the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with local governments and the private sector for the implied purpose of giving the Executive Branch complete and limitless control over the American people. One of the most effective...

Priorities. While hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are still suffering without heat and power, Barack Obama is waiting until Thursday, November 15 to visit New York City to meet with struggling survivors of Hurricane Sandy and review the recovery process firsthand. The visit happens to come on the same day that Obama's college basketball coach brother-in-law will be in town for a tournament.Obama paid an election-savvy visit to New Jersey on October 31, right after Sandy hit, but held off visiting New York City at the request of Mayor Mike Bloomberg as the city was not prepared for a...